Plants, having been created before animals, are considered next.
Trees, either whole or represented by stocks or branches, are very favourite charges, and often reflect the bearer's name.
Thus, one Wood bears a single oak, the Pines, a pineapple tree, the Pyrtons, a pear-tree. Parts of a tree are often introduced into arms. For example, the Blackstocks bear three stocks, or trunks, of trees, whilst another family of the same name charge their shield with "three starved branches, sa." The Archer-Houblons most appropriately bear three hop-poles erect with hop-vines. (Houblon is the French for hop.) Three broom slips are assigned to the Broom family; the Berrys bear one barberry branch; Sir W. Waller, three walnut leaves. Amongst fruit charges, we may mention the three golden pears borne by the Stukeleys, the three red cherries which occur in the arms of the Southbys of Abingdon, and the three clusters of grapes which were bestowed on Sir Edward de Marolez by Edward I. One John Palmer bears three acorns, and three ashen-keys occur in the arms of Robert Ashford of Co. Down.
A full-grown oak-tree, covered with acorns and growing out of the ground, was given for armorial bearings by Charles II. to his faithful attendant, Colonel Carlos, as a reminder of the perils that they shared together at the lonely farmhouse at Boscobel, where the king took refuge after the Battle of Worcester. Here, as you probably all know, Charles hid himself for twenty-four hours in a leafy oak-tree, whilst Cromwell's soldiers searched the premises to find him, even passing under the very branches of the oak. Carlos, meanwhile, in the garb of a wood-cutter, kept breathless watch close by. On the Carlos coat of arms a fesse gu., charged with three imperial golden crowns, traverses the oak.
In blazoning trees and all that pertains to them, the following terms are used: Growing trees are blazoned as "issuant from a mount vert"; a full-grown tree, as "accrued"; when in leaf, as "in foliage"; when bearing fruit, as "fructed," or seeds, as "seeded." If leafless, trees are blazoned "blasted"; when the roots are represented, as "eradicated"; stocks or stumps of trees are "couped." If branches or leaves are represented singly, they are "slipped." Holly branches, for some odd reason, are invariably blazoned either as "sheaves" or as "holly branches of three leaves."
Some of our homely vegetables are found in heraldry. One Squire Hardbean bears most properly three bean-cods or pods; a "turnip leaved" is borne by the Damant family, and is supposed to symbolize "a good wholesome, and solid disposition," whilst the Lingens use seven leeks, root upwards, issuing from a ducal coronet, for a crest. Herbs also occur as charges. The family of Balme bears a sprig of balm, whilst rue still figures in the Ducal arms of Saxony. This commemorates the bestowal of the Dukedom on Bernard of Ascania by the Emperor Barbarossa, who, on that occasion, took the chaplet of rue from his own head and flung it across Bernard's shield.
Amongst flower charges, our national badge, the rose, is prime favourite, and occurs very often in heraldry. The Beverleys bear a single rose, so does Lord Falmouth. The Nightingale family also use the rose as a single charge, in poetical allusion to the Oriental legend of the nightingale's overpowering love for the "darling rose." The Roses of Lynne bear three roses, as also the families of Flower, Cary, and Maurice. Sometimes the rose of England is drawn from nature, but it far oftener takes the form of the heraldic or Tudor rose. Funnily enough, however, when a stem and leaves are added to the conventional flower, these are drawn naturally.
There are special terms for blazoning roses. Thus, when, as in No. 7 of Fig. [36], it is represented with five small projecting sepals of the calyx, and seeded, it must be blazoned "a rose barbed and seeded"; when it has a stalk and one leaf it is "slipped," but with a leaf on either side of the stalk, it is "stalked and leaved." A rose surrounded with rays is blazoned "a rose in sun" (rose en soleil). Heraldic roses are by no means always red, for the Rocheforts bear azure roses, the Smallshaws a single rose vert, whilst the Berendons have three roses sable.
The thistle, being also our national badge, has a special importance in our eyes, but next to the "chiefest among flowers, the rose, the heralds ranked the fleur-de-lys," because it was the charge of a regal escutcheon, originally borne by the French kings. Numerous legends explain the introduction of the lily into armorial bearings, but we can only add here that although the fleur-de-lys is generally used in heraldry, the natural flower is occasionally represented—as in the well-known arms of Eton College; three natural lilies, silver, are charged upon a sable field, one conventional fleur-de-lys being also represented. Amongst other flower charges, three very pretty coats of arms are borne respectively by the families of Jorney, Hall, and Chorley. The first have three gilliflowers, the second, three columbines, and the last, three bluebottles (cornflowers).
Three pansies were given by Louis XV. to his physician, Dr. Quesnay, as a charge in a coat of arms, which he drew with his own royal hand; and to come to modern times, Mexico has adopted the cactus as the arms of the Republic, in allusion to the legend connected with the founding of the city in 1325, when it is said that the sight of a royal eagle perched upon a huge cactus on a rocky crevice, with a serpent in its talons, guided the Mexicans to the choice of a site for the foundations of their city.